The present invention relates generally to skates, and more particularly to inline roller skates.
Inline roller skates, or simply inline skates, are boots with wheels mounted in a line under the sole of the boot. Some inline skates have wheels mounted to boots with some type of shock absorption system. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,609,612 to Eskeland, U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,208 to Charron et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,713 to Alexander all show skates with wheels supported through shock absorbing springs. Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,025 to Landay and U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,489 to Oyen et al. show other shock absorbing systems.
The shock absorbing systems of the past, however, have provided shock absorption at the cost of decreased performance of the skate. Specifically, prior shock absorbing systems allow wheels to tilt when subjected to lateral forces, such as when a skater pushes the skate to the side to propel the skater forward, or when a skater turns or corners. Tilting of the wheels decreases the performance of a skate. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,025 to Landay, for example, discloses resilient cushions and axle end caps that allow wheels to tilt. The systems shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,208 to Charron et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,489 to Oyen et al. include coil springs, disc springs or shock absorbing plugs that also allow the wheels to tilt. The systems of U.S. Pat. No. 1,609,612 to Eskeland and U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,713 to Alexander show skates with springs, ribs and slots that permit wheels to tilt.
Additionally, inline skates of the past have not included suspension systems that permit individual wheels to be adjusted so that different wheels may move up and down relative to the boot at varying spring rates. Such an adjustable system would increase the performance of a skate by providing shock absorption while also allowing a user to customize the skate for various skating maneuvers, such as allowing a skater to turn very sharply by leaning forward or back so that fewer than all the wheels of the skate contact the ground.
The present invention addresses these and other issues, and encompasses various embodiments of high performance skates.